Spanish snafus

Have you ever had an embarrassing language snafu? Well up until this past weekend I didn't think I had committed any but turns out all of my friends and I had been committing a rather big one regularly. We were all taught, as I'm sure you were if you've taken any Spanish that "Entiendes?" means "Do you understand?", and if you just go by the dictionary definition that is 100% true and perfectly correct. Now that we have that established lets move on with the story, one night Allison, Kenzie and I were out with some Spanish friends and feeling good about our Spanish, chatting up a storm when one of us, I don't remember who asked Lucas, "Entiendes?". His response was laughter, we of course were very confused because we didn't understand what we had said wrong, we had used the correct verb and conjugated it correctly. Once he calmed down a bit he explained to us that in this particular region of Spain to ask someone "Entiendes?" is to ask someone if they are gay. At first we just thought he was teasing us, but we asked Miguel what it meant and he agreed. Determined not to make the mistake again we asked what we should be saying instead, it turns out "Sabes?" which literally translates to "Do you know?" is more appropriate and will save us a lot of awkward moments when talking with Spaniards.

Another interesting language quirk I have encountered here in the general populations inability to pronounce "Jenny". They do just fine with "Jennifer", occasionally adding a 'Y' in front but that is to be expected, what baffles me is the utter failure when it comes to "Jenny", it consistently comes out as "Yani". After two and a half months (wow I've been here a long time!) of confusion and wondering, I finally broke down and asked Miguel if there is a reason for this. To my surprise, it wasn't just that the syllables are hard for the Spanish mouth to pronounce no, he told me in a very straightforward manner, that my name is vulgar. I was shocked by this and asked him to elaborate, he told me that Jenny is the "vulgar gypsy form" of Jennifer, so the Spaniards don't use it and don't like to say it. Just as a little but of background information, the gypsies have a really bad reputation in Spain, as the do in the rest of the world, and are the lowest of the low in society. The have a reputation for stealing and cheating and many of them are so poor they live in boxes and as Miguel also told me "go out in their pajamas", I'm not sure that they are doing this by choice but the Spaniards look down on them for it. Since this night I've been using Jennifer when I meet new people and I've been getting much more positive results.

Well I hope you enjoyed my stories about some of my language struggles here in Spain, I was at a loss about what to write about for this blog because I didn't do much today other than get some coffee with friends while we finalized the final details of our trip to Barcelona tomorrow, and pack. However, my mom suggested I share these so I did.

Anyways, I'll be taking a short hiatus from blogging because I won't have internet from Sunday-Wednesday because I'll be traveling but as soon as I return I promise to tell you all about Barcelona with lots of pictures! Try not to miss me too much. Hasta luego!

Está lloviendo.

It rained pretty much all day today here in the usually sunny Sevilla, which really put a damper on my plans to lay by the river all day and do nothing. Instead I bummed around all day, took a little walk around the city which was hard because everyone had their umbrellas out and they walk just as recklessly if not more so with them. Then later I did a little bit of catching up on my homework and I plan on turning in a little bit early tonight.

Last night I went out to Calle Betis, the street that has all of the bars on it in Trianna, the neighborhood across the bridge from where I live with Allison, Allyson, McKenzie and our Spanish friends. We met up at a bar called Demo where Lucas' brother was in a DJ competition. The bar was really fun and different from where we usually go. There were definitely a lot more Americans, we saw some people we knew from CIEE but there were plenty of Spaniards as well, and we didn't even stand out because we were there with our very own Spanish friends.

McKenzie, Me, Allyson, Gonzalo, Antonio, Lucas and Allison.

Las chicas :) 

Me and McKenzie.

Soy una maestra

The way my class schedule is here in Sevilla makes it so I have just one class every Monday and Wednesday and three on Tuesdays and Thursdays, this makes for some very dull mornings on Mondays and Wednesdays because my friends all have class until after lunch. While it was still a little chilly out I would try to fill my morning with window shopping, this was a bad plan because I usually would end up buying something, so to save my bank account a little pain I decided to volunteer at an elementary school here. 

The school I volunteer at is a Catholic elementary school, called Colegio Sagrada Corazón Esclavas del Divino Corazón del Jesús, sounds like a happy name right? Since it is a Catholic school all of the kids wear navy/green/white uniforms, the little girls always have bows in their hair and it is beyond adorable. My job at the school is to help out in an English class. Originally I was supposed to be helping in a classroom with kids who were about the age of fourth graders, however, there was a change of plans and I ended up in "infantil" or kindergarten. I don't regret the change at all, they are the cutest kids! It's funny too because I am at least three feet taller than all of the kids and a good foot and a half taller than their teacher. Have you ever tried to do the cheek besos with someone who is significantly shorter than you? No? Well it's not easy. 

The kids are so little that the are unable to read and write in English, so all of their tests are oral. On my first day in class they were testing on their knowledge of "eyes", "ears", "nose", "mouth"and "happy", "sad", "tired", "mad". They stood up in front of the class and said the corresponding word as the teacher pointed at the body part or made the emotion. It was funny to me that even after seeing many of their classmates go they could still get the words wrong. Another thing that surprised me was that the supposed English teacher can't really speak English, in fact it is much easier for me to communicate with her in Spanish, but she knows the basics and they're so little I suppose that is all they need. 

Some of my favorite things I've gotten asked (all in Spanish of course) are: 

• "Can you talk?' I'm not sure if they meant in Spanish or English but it was still cute. 
• "This is my book, Sofía la golondrina" that means sparrow, and it wasn't a question but she was so cute showing it to me.
• "Teacher Yani" That is how they pronounce Jenny. 
• Lastly, two little girls brought me flowers in from recess, again not a quote but so precious. 

I feel so lucky to have found this volunteer opportunity while in Spain because I really feel like it fills in a little something of what I had been missing without even realizing it. I had subconciously been missing volunteering at Sherman Middle School, back in Madison, where I help 6th grade non-native English speakers with their homework. I can't wait to go back and use my new Spanish skills there! While the two experiences are drastically different I feel appreciated and like I am making a difference at both schools, which I love. 

I know this was a slightly boring post but I hope you all enjoyed it anyways! Nos vemos! Un gran beso :) 

The one with all the pictures

Today I spent the better part of my evening with Zoe and Gilana planning our trip to Dublin/London. Shockingly, booking the flights wasn't the most exciting part of the evening for me, what I was most excited about was that I was in someone else's house for the first time in two and a half months! As, I've mentioned before, the Spaniards don't socialize "en casa" the do it "en la calle" so although I've heard a lot about my friends homestays I've never been inside. Gilana's host mom is very cool about this though and doesn't mind if she has a few friends over, which was awesome because in Sevilla it is hard to find the free, reliable internet that we needed to look at flights. The point of this whole story is that while I was in Gilana's house I finally had the chance to grab a few of the photos she had taken during our time here, since she never posts them on Facebook! I think they super cute and fun, so I decided to share them with ya'll.

Gilana, me and Zoe on the beach in front of the Mediterranean Sea in Morocco. 

Me and Gilana running down to the Atlantic Ocean in Morocco. 

Me being silly on the beach.

Panting because it was a long run back up to the top...

Zoe, Me and Gilana at a rest stop in Morocco.

Senior picture moroccan style?

Trying on some hats at the rest stop. 

Gilana, Zoe and me in the torre on our Cádiz trip.

Freiduria translates roughly into fried food store.

A mountain of fried sea food. 

Yummy! Sea food on the beach. 

Close up of our pescado frito. 

Me and Gilana on the beach. 

Far away version. 

Zoe, Me and Gilana in Córdoba. 

I'm the horse whisperer (Córdoba).

I'm a Spanish popstar

Well kind of anyways. For my Cultural Expression interest group we had to participate in a music video for a local band. Yes you heard me right. I, Jenny, was in a music video and it wasn't even the worst thing that has ever happened in my life. In fact it was actually a really fun day and it led me to meet some of my closest Spanish friends to date. 

The day started out a little rough, we were filming in the CIEE palacio or where we have class everyday, and we had to be there at 9 AM, on a Friday! Thursday is the main day that college students go out here in Sevilla, and they stay out late, if you go home before 4 or 5 AM you're doing something wrong. Needless to say, rolling out of bed and making the walk to the Palacio wasn't quite what I wanted to do, I would have preferred to sleep in until noon, but you can't always get what you want. 

The premise of the song/video is a guy who has a really controlling girlfriend and he finally realizes it and has flashbacks on how bad their relationship really was. My friend Allison, who is about the sweetest person I've ever met had to play the mean girlfriend and I was her snotty friend. The video started with the two of us having a conversation and the guy, Lucas who is a member of the band, trying to jump into the conversation and us not letting him. They weren't going to use the sound they just wanted our mouths to be moving but they wanted it to look natural so they told us to have a conversation in English but we didn't know what to say! We were talking about these silly Spanish guys we met last night and how cute they were, then Allison jokingly said that her "boyfriend" wasn't that cute and that we could find her a cuter one that night. After that take Lucas told us to "ten cuidado" or be careful because he understood English! It was so funny, and a little awkward because we had been joking and talking nonsense the whole time. 

After that scene we moved on to a plaza just behind the cathedral for the group dance number. We all did a short choreographed routine while Lucas lipsynched to the song, he isn't the singer he is the drummer. Then it was onto the spying scene, as he walked down the street I got to lurk behind him and '"call" Allison to update her on his whereabouts. There were a lot of close ups of my face, which I wasn't too fond of. Finally we ended in the park where Allison had to walk up to him, yell and tear him away from his group of friends, her attempts at a mean face were hysterical, we almost died laughing during every take. 

In the end they must have gotten enough of what they wanted because we called it a day, and the movie will be debuting on our trip to Madrid in April. Don't worry, despite the embarrassment I'm sure this will cause me I promise to post the video here once it is released so you can see me in my popstar glory. 

I know I mentioned that I made some of my best Spanish friends from the music video experience and that is the truth. Lucas is very nice and he introduced us to a number of his friends. Allison, McKenzie and I have been hanging out with them, mostly Lucas, Miguel and Antonio at least once a weekend since we shot the music video. It is such a fun way for all of us to improve our language skills in a way that doesn't feel like a chore. When I hangout with them I hardly notice that I am speaking Spanish, which is fun and makes me feel like I truly belong in Sevilla. 

A day at the beach in Cádiz

Check, check, check it out. Bloggin' three days in a row, I'm on a role. However, there appears to be an inverse relationship between the temperature here and my desire to blog, as the temperature goes up my blogging ambitions go down. So as the weather becomes ever warmer I have made a vow to try to keep up with my blogging, not only for you all but for myself as well, because this blog will serve as a remind of all the adventures I had here in Spain for years to come. So without further ado here is a little bit about my trip to Cádiz two weekends ago, oh how the time flies.

This trip to Cádiz was the last "free" trip, that CIEE offers, I'm sure the cost is included in program fees but I like free things so I'm calling them free. I managed to go on all of the free trips and honestly none of them were disappointing in the least. It was a nice way to ease into traveling, having everything planned out and having CIEE staff to field any problems we may have had. They always put us up in nice hotels if it was a weekend trip, provided us with food and local tour guides. These trips were the perfect length and a great way to see parts of Spain that I may not have traveled to otherwise! I was very excited to travel to Cádiz, because it is a beach town, and you all know I love the ocean.

Cádiz is pretty far south, and is on the Atlantic.

After a very comfortable bus ride, we all got our own row of seats because they offered so many other days to take this trip that we only had about 25 people on a greyhound bus, we pulled into Cádiz around 11 AM. I was a little disappointed to see that is was foggy and a little windy, I was worried it was going to cramp my style and prevent me from enjoying the beach but thankfully as the day wore on the fog burned off and the sun came out. 

Cádiz is the oldest continuously inhabited city in Spain, it has been around for over 3,000 years. On our tour through the city we started in the area called "Old Town" and got to see remnants of old cathedrals, the old city walls and even some roman ruins. Much of the city is new, as in built after the 18th century because the city was attacked my England in 1702 and was devastated by the British cannons. They have since reclaimed some of the land back from the ocean and have (obviously) rebuilt. Cádiz also recently celebrated its bicentennial of independence as an autonomous provence of Spain, it was the first one to do so.

View of the pretty, white beach town from the torre of the cathedral.

Another thing that is interesting about Cádiz is that it is the only city in Spain that handles tobacco directly and turns it into things like cigarettes. Sevilla had the monopoly on tobacco trade with the Americas until the 18th century when the Rio Guadalquivir's water levels lowered and sandbars started to appear. The Spanish government decided to move their main port from Sevilla to Cádiz which has direct access to the Atlantic, this decision converted Cádiz into one of the wealthiest ports in all of Spain. One fact we learned about tobacco was that the women were in charge of handling the highest grade of tobacco because they are naturally more dexterous and could more skillfully roll cigarettes.

Old tobacco factory in Cádiz. 

Statue dedicated to the women of the tobacco trade.

Then we headed into the Plaza de San Antonio for a short rest break before heading up into the torre (tower) of the Catedral de Cádiz. The cathedral of Cádiz is much less grand than the one in Sevilla, and it was never completely finished due to a lack of funds. It only has two towers instead of the intended four and it has empty alcoves, outside and inside, where statues of saints should be. Nonetheless it was still pretty and the view from the top was to die for.

Plaza de San Antonio. 

One of the torres of the cathedral.

View of the cathedral, you can really see the missing statues on the torres.

Cupola of Cádiz Cathedral.

Ocean view :) 

Palm tree oasis in the middle of the city.

After our ascent of the torre we went for a walk around Cádiz we visited the flower market and a number of other local markets. Walked through some pretty gardens and even got to see another one of the special trees that Cristobal Colon brought back to Spain from America. Mercifully, before all of the walking became to much we arrived and the beach and were told we now had free time until it was time to leave.

Gilana, Zoe and I had all neglected to bring lunch so we headed back into the city to find some pescado frito or fried fish, which Cádiz is known for. We asked our tour guide for a recommendation and he sent us to the most wonderful place, it was full or locals and very busy! After waiting for about twenty minutes we got more fish than we could eat for 15 euros and took it back to the beach where we had to fight some seagulls for it but it was worth the trouble. My favorite was the chocos which is fried cuddlefish and tastes like calamari but not as chewy. It came with a lot of varieties of shrimp and fish but some of the stranger things we tried were a whole fried squid, some bone-in anchovy-like fish and most disgustingly, huevas. From the name we should've known it was going to be weird but it was basically fish eggs stuffed in an intestine and fried. Not my personal favorite but I tried it. Then we spent the rest of our time enjoying the view and laying on the beach because it was too cold to swim. I did dip my toes in and collect some seashells though!

Such a pretty beach. 

It was kinda high tide...

Me and Zoe on the beach. 

Cute little boats. 

I had such a wonderful time in Cádiz it was a great relaxing day trip with awesome friends! I hope reading about my trip to the beach brightens up you week, I know thinking back on it as I wrote this blog sure brightened up mine!

Previously unpublished photos from my trip

So when I was having my internet troubles and couldn't upload the pictures I wanted for my Morocco blog I found out that Facebook now allows you to post album links to share your pictures with your family and friends who don't have Facebook. I think that this is a really cool idea and I know my parents said they would want to see more pictures of my time in Spain so I'll post all the links below with a short description of what each one is!

Click the link below to see pictures from my first weeks in Sevilla and my trips to Córdoba and Granda. Warning includes a lot of scenery, silly poses and Pantera.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150754312606258.498223.565661257&type=3&l=242633fc2c


Alright, below are my Morocco photos, I know I've posted this album before but in case you want to look again here you go. This one involves an abundance of animals and food.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150821741351258.506751.565661257&type=3&l=5e14e469ae

Up next are my photos from the fabulous Ronda. If you ever get a chance to travel to Andalusia I highly recommend a stop here! This is probably my most outdoorsy/athletic album to date.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/set=a.10150848212821258.510592.565661257&type=3&l=9d68114eca


Last but not least my day trip to Cádiz, and let me tell you this album is full of ocean and beach goodness!

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150821795336258.506759.565661257&type=3&l=92dd0fddb4

I finally figured out how to make the web address into a link so you don't have to copy and paste it anymore! Also I made it so when you click on it the pictures will open in a new tab so that you don't have to worry about losing the page you are on! I hope you all enjoy the extra pictures!

Saliste anoche?

I had a fabulous weekend here in Sevilla. On Thursday night Allison, Mckenzie and I went out with some of our Spanish friends, Lucas, Antonio and Miguel. We met them while Allison and I were making a music video for Lucas' band. Me in a music video? Sounds crazy I know, but I'll explain all that in a later post, and will post the video here as soon as it comes out as long as you all promise not to make fun of me!

They took us out to La Alameda de Hercules, Calle Alfalfa (one of the best places to be on a Thursday night) and to a discoteca we'd never been to before. It was great to not have to worry about getting lost or wondering if a certain bar would be open or which one is good to go to, and the discoteca was so fun, and there were many more Spanish people and less Americans which was a plus. Lucas, Antonio and Miguel are fabulous tour guides and so much fun to talk to. They are trying to practice their English, so they speak to us in English and we respond in Spanish, it can be a little tricky and I'd be lying if I said we didn't revert to our native languages every once and awhile but it is still so helpful! They are also great people to ask about words I don't know or where to stand on Semana Santa.

Lucas, McKenzie, Allison, Miguel and I in a bar on Calle Alfalfa!

Sorry that this was such a short post and that I have been slightly negligent in my blogging but hopefully this will tide you all over until I can post about my adventures in Cádiz, filming a music video and more! Un saludo!

"I wonder if the birds know how lucky they are to live here?"

On Saturday I took an impromtu day trip to Ronda, Spain, with Allison, Mckenzie and Matt. We all met up at Plaza del Duque at 9:15 AM to catch the 10 AM bus, there was one earlier but Matt said that we would've all been mad at him if he'd bought those tickets, which is true. The bus ride took about two hours and it was a beautiful drive, the only annoying part was the guy sitting next to us, he kept laughing really loudly at the show he was watching on his iPad. I never knew someone doing a "quiet" activity could be so loud.

Where Ronda is located.

After a quick bathroom break the first thing we did when we got to Ronda was buy a map, we didn't know it but the map came in three languages, English, Spanish and French. We accidentally picked one written in French, of all of the choices we managed to pick the only one we couldn't read, but luckily the store owner let us exchange it. So with a map that we could read we set off for our day long adventure. We had such good luck all day, we kept just stumbling upon places that we wanted to visit. First we visited the Puente Nuevo, or new bridge, which was built in the 18th century so it isn't so new. 

Puente Nuevo.

We spent some time on the bridge and then we saw that there were people in the bottom of the canyon, immediately we wanted to be down there too, but we couldn't figure out how to get there. Matt yelled down to some people in the canyon and they told us we had to go to La casa del Rey Moro, so we went crossed the bridge and found out that we had to pay 4 euro to go through the old mines to get to the bottom of the canyon, it was well worth it!

The canyon we went down into. 

Canyon reflecting in the water. 

Something was really funny, but look how blue the water is. 

We walked into the place where you buy tickets to get to the bottom of the canyon and the woman selling them asked us "are you the four people who were yelling about how to get down into the canyon?", we said yes we were, which she thought was hilarious. We walked down through the abandoned mine, which was very cool. There was one room that was built so that you could stand in one corner and whisper and the person in the opposite corner could hear it as if you were standing next to them. On the way down through the mine there were a lot of little jut outs where you could look down into the canyon and Matt was leaning out and dropped his sunglasses on another tourists' head, oops! The water at the bottom of the canyon was so clear and blue it looked fake, it was amazing.

Stopped at one of the scenic outlooks. 

After we trekked back up from the canyon we were hungry so we decided to go have tapas for lunch. The first place we went was an adventure to say the least, we ordered a mixed plate of tapas to share and didn't know what 75% of them were, and none of them were very good. Disappointed and still hungry we decided to go "tapa-hopping" and headed to another tapas place. This one was much tastier, I had some fabulous spinach croquettes and we liked everything that we tried there. 

We spent an hour or so wandering around the town of Ronda, we visited the Plaza de toros and a few scenic outlooks, and I found my new house. From one of the outlooks we saw a waterfall and I was determined to get closer to it. So we started off and found a path that seemed to lead to the waterfall, we got a great view of the countryside. Then I found another little path that was slightly off the beaten track, we did some slightly more extreme hiking, at one point we weren't sure how we would get back up to the top. We finally ended up at the foot of the water fall, at a private pool with lots of mini waterfalls, that seemed like it didn't get many vistors. Words can't describe how gorgeous this place was, we stayed there for over an hour, throwing rocks off the edge, dipping our feet in the water and just relaxing. We were so disappointed when it was time to hike back to the bus, but it was a wonderful day trip and Ronda definitely near the top of the list of my favorite places in Spain.

Relaxing by the waterfall.

Waterfall we hiked down to.

Looking down from the bridge on the pool we sat by.

100 Montaditos and intercambios

So before we get into the details of my fabulous daily life here in Sevilla I bet you’d like to see some pictures from my picnic in the park wouldn’t you? Well here you go:

Liz, Melissa, Alicia, Me, Amanda L., Amanda B., Gilana, Marianna at our park picnic!

Zoe, Liz and I.

 That was such a fun day, I think I’m having another picnic tomorrow with the girls who don’t have many classes on Wednesdays!

This week has gone by quickly so far, I bought the Divinci Code in Spanish and I plan on reading it when I have weird amounts of time between classes to improve my Spanish and get some reading in. I’ve also been wearing my new shorts that I bought here last week. They’re very comfy and according to my mom make me look very Spanish, I showed them to my family via skype in Starbucks, probably not one of my most dignified moments but I don’t really mind. Also, when I wore them I got a “guapa” from my Señora, and she doesn’t just toss those around so I must look alright.

Speaking of my Señora, I had a little bit of an embarrassing moment with her. We were eating dinner and it was a soup with shrimp in it, so Pantera really wanted some. Eating the seafood soup got me to thinking about other ocean animals and I somehow ended up on sharks but I couldn’t for the life of me remember the word for shark in Spanish, which is silly because I’ve totally watched Finding Nemo in Spanish. I must have been staring off into space because she asked me what was up and I awkwardly asked the word for shark, describing it as “a fish that’s not a fish, with really big teeth” and then making the shark fin on my back… She understood what I meant and helped me out, the word is “tiburón” by the way. I was really excited when I heard the word which she thought was hysterical, but she then made Pantera do a gangster dance to the Spanish rap song that came on the radio so I think we’re even for now.

My Spanish for the Health Professional was really great this week, we had a pediatrician Miguel Lazara come speak to the class. Listening to him talk was very interesting. He told us what a pediatrician in Spain does, the different types of pediatricians, the vaccine schedules and finally typical childhood ailments. One thing that was particularily interesting to me is that children don’t get the chicken pox vaccine until they are twelve years old! That seems really strange to me because in the US even before the vaccine most kids got chicken pox when they were very young.  He also told us that there is a vaccine that can prevent diahrea, which I didn’t know. Additionally, in Spain children only go to the pediatrician until they are fourteen, after which they go to a family doctor. He asked how the system worked in the US and I sheepishly admitted that I STILL go to the pediatrician, and that you can go until you are twenty-one, since my birthday is in May I guess I need to start looking for a doctor. Those are just some of the things he told us that stood out in my mind or are interesting enough to share but his whole presentation was fabulous and I really learned a lot. I liked it because that was what I had expected this course to be like so I was happy that it was living up to my expectations.

 Monday night I had my weekly intercambio friend group meeting, we didn’t have it last week because too many people in the group were travelling since Tuesday was a holiday, so it was great to see everyone again. We went to our usual spot right across from the university, 100 Montaditos, for ¡Dos jarras de cerveza y una tapa por solamente 2€!, that is what the advertisement for Super Lunes says. It is really nice though because for a couple euros each we get to sit at tables right off Calle San Fernando and people watch and chat for hours. Very cheap entertainment, but it works best with an even number of people, last night we were uneven so Alfonso and Nolan split the extra cervezas. It’s funny because although we are supposed to speak equal amounts of Spanish and English, they get really uncomfortable when we speak English for prolonged periods of time and the language always switches back to Spanish. We talked a lot about the differences between public/private universities in Spain and American and about life in the US in general. It doesn’t matter what we talk about though, it is always one of my favorite parts of the week. 

Intercambio group hot spot.

 I hope all of your weeks are full of picnics and 100 montaditos just like mine ;)

Spring is in the air

¡Hola queridas! I’ll hopefully be back to blogging with more regularity now that I’m a little less busy, no jetting off to another continent anytime soon. I have midterms coming up so for the next few weeks I’ll just be enjoying the relaxing Sevillan lifestyle and exploring some of the surrounding towns. There are a few I have heard about from friends that are a must see, Carmona and Ronda. Carmona has ancient roman ruins and a castle while Ronda boasts great hiking trails and a waterfall! As a write this post I’m sitting on a nice sunny bench with a river view in my favorite park here in Sevilla, I know sounds like a pretty rough place to do homework and blog. I don’t have much homework this weekend so I’ve been enjoying a lot of time with my Señora and mis amigas, but before I tell you about my weekend let me catch you up on the week I had.

Classes for me were a little bit of a joke this week. I had my one class on Monday as usual, then Tuesday was Día de Andalucía, which is a regional holiday so all of the businesses were closed and of course school was cancelled. My friends and I planned a picnic in Parque de Principe, which is a park on the other side of the river form my house in Triana. I don’t get over there very much so it was good to venture out of my comfort zone. It was a beautiful day for a picnic, we spent six hours eating our bocadillos (sandwiches), laying out in the sun, it was at least 75, playing the card game “Spoons” with our indestructible Spanish cellphones in place of spoons and walking by the river enjoying a cup of helado. It was a wonderful day and it definitely made me wish school was cancelled everyday, but we’ve decided that these picnics should be a weekly occurrence now that it is nice out, so I’m looking forward to that. On Wednesday, I only had one class again and after trying out traditional Semana Santa treats for about half an hour our teacher let us go because her throat hurt, so Thursday was the only day I really had class this week, and man those three classes were a little shock after such an easy week.

Now onto the weekend, I stayed in on Thursday night because I had a really bad sore throat and stuffy ears, and I was worried I was getting sick. Turns out I’m just allergic to spring in Sevilla, and now after a few days of heavily medicating with my allergy medicine regime and some Dayquil I feel like my normal self.  Friday night I went out to a Latino dance club with three of my friends, we wanted a change from what we would usually do on the weekends here and it was tons of fun. We went to what is supposedly the best Latino dance club in Sevilla, and when we got there we found out that we picked a good night to come because Fridays music was a lot more reggaeton/hip-hop and less salsa/merengue. I had an awesome time, all of the music was great to dance to and I even learned a few salsa moves!

Today I just caught up on some homework and did a little bit of shopping. The rebajas are over but I needed some shorts. I had no idea how hot it would get here but it is becoming clear if I want to survive until May, more shorts will be necessary. Tonight I think I’m going out with some friends, so that should be fun. This weekend has been nice and relaxing, it was just what I needed after last weekends travelling extravaganza. I hope all your weekends are just as wonderful as mine is shaping up to be! As my Señora would say, ¡Un Beso!

Waka waka esto es Africa

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I took my first trip out of Spain this past weekend and what a trip it was,  in just three days I went to two continents, three countries and five cities! It all started with me waking up really early (or at least according to Spanish time) and walked about 35 minutes to the Plaza de Cuba where I was to meet the bus and my friends. Miraculously, the bus left on time and we were off on our marathon journey, the first stop was the English province of Gibraltar. Something I bet you all didn’t know, because I certainly didn’t, is that Gibraltar is on the Spanish peninsula and was occupied by the Spanish for many years, until the 20^th century when the British took over. As a result all of the inhabitants are bilingual, speaking both English and Spanish, this was a little bit of a shock for us, it meant we didn’t have our “secret language” anymore and for better or worse, everyone walking down the street could understand us. We walked through border patrol from Spain into Gibraltar, we found out that some people send their kids to school in Gibraltar but live in Spain so they cross the border everyday. Once we were officially in Gibraltar we hopped on a bus for a tour of the city and the rock of Gibraltar. Despite obvious Spanish and British influences, Gibraltar had a distinct island feel that was all it’s own.  It actually really reminded me of the Cayman Islands, from it’s close proximity to large bodies of bright blue water and slower pace of life right down to its very own terrifying landing strip. 

A helpful reference map, and the flag of Gibraltar. 

Just chillin on the runway, with the Rock of Gibraltar in the background.

Walking through passport control.

Mediterranean on the left, Atlantic on the right.

Me and Zoe taking the classic telephone booth picture, we were in the UK after all!

After taking a short tour of the city and stopping to take in the view of the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, we headed up the rock of Gibraltar to see the caves and monkeys. The caves were amazing; composed of giant stalactites and stalagmites it was like stepping back in time. Throughout the years the caves have been fitted out as a hospital in times of war and nowadays are used for concerts and the Miss Gibraltar pageant.

Stalactites and stalagmites.

Can you find me? :) 

More awesome cave action. 

Up next was a short visit with the monkeys who were very mischievous. I witnessed them run into a store and steal a candy bar off the shelf. They also stole a bag of cough drops out of one girls bag while she was trying to get a picture with them. Our tour guide told us that although the monkeys are a nuisance Winston Churchill declared that some number of them must always remain in Gibraltar because he believed if the monkeys ever left Gibraltar the people would too, so he ordered that thirty monkeys were kept on the island, today there are over two hundred. Our guide also told us that people can’t bring dogs up onto the rock of Gibraltar because the monkeys will gang up and kill them. This made me take the other piece of advice we got from our trip coordinator more seriously. He told us in imperfect English “don’t touch the monkeys, let the monkeys touch you.” The monkeys didn’t touch me or climb on me like they did for some people in our group but I didn’t really mind, I was kind of afraid of them so I was content to enjoy the experience from a distance.

Their feet freak me out. 

Me and my monkey friend. 

Monkey with a cough drop.

 Family of monkeys.

After our tour of Gibraltar we traveled to the Spanish port from which we would be taking a ferry to Africa. We took an hour-long ferry ride to the city of Ceuta, which is technically in Africa but is Spanish territory. Then we got back on our buses, which made the intercontinental journey with us in the belly of the ferry, and we crossed the border into Morocco. We had to wait over an hour to cross the border, but our bus (BLUE BUS!) passed the time with a singing contest and a sing-a-long to camp songs and some old school hits such as Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears. Finally, after traveling for over twelve hours, we arrived at our hotel in Tetuan, Morocco at 9:30 PM. Tetuan is in northern Morocco and is a very popular vacation spot in the summer because it is right on the Mediterranean, think Club Med, and it doesn’t get as hot as some cities in the south, which can get up to 55 degrees Celsius. That night we went to dinner, which we were so grateful for because we were starving, it was delicious and I tried flan for the first time. Then we jumped at the chance to shower with unlimited hot water and good water pressure, and later we watched some Arab Idol. After watching Arab Idol we realized two things, one we couldn’t tell if the singers were good or not because we had no idea what good Arabic singing sounds like and two we had better go to bed because we had to be up at 7:30 the next day.

First view of Africa from the ferry.

Welcome to Ceuta, Spanish province in Africa.

View from our hotel window.

Saturday morning after a yummy breakfast complete with fresh squeezed orange juice and a quick romp in the Mediterranean, we left our hotel in Tetuan and got on the bus for a gorgeous ride to the mountain city of Chefchauoen.

A city we passed on the way to Chefchauoen.

Pretty mountain lake.

The tour of the city was amazing, each town in Morocco has its own colors, Chefchauoen’s are blue and white, the blue is said to keep away mosquitos and the white is to keep the houses cool. We also learned that historically the entry ways of homes were built to match the height of the man of the household so anyone taller who tried to enter would automatically have to bow and would be forced to pay their respects. While in the city we visited a blanket cooperative and saw some examples of their masterful weaving. It can take up to two weeks just to dye the silk or camel hair and weave each blanket. Later we had a little free time to enjoy the mountain views and of course shop. Some friends and I stopped for a cool drink, and since we couldn’t drink the water that left us with the choice of pop or pop. So we settled for some cokes and were pleased to find that they had Arabic on them! 

After an enjoyable morning in Chefchaouen we piled back onto the bus for the journey back to Tetuan for lunch and a tour of the city. Lunch was delicious, we had been wondering when we would get to try some authentic Moroccan food and we got our wish. They served us a soup, kabobs, a puff pastry filled with chicken and Moroccan mint tea.

Both the Arabs and the Berbers inhabit the city of Tetuan, we were able to see both of these cultures traditional dress. It is pretty much the same for men but the women’s clothing is very different. The Arab women wear the face veils and long dress, while the Berber women wear a more colorful dress and the sombrero-esque hat that their name is derived from. As part of our tour we visited a traditional Arab pharmacy in Tetuan, which was very interesting, they had all kinds of natural remedies and most importantly to all the girls, argon oil. Argon oil is the main ingredient in Moroccan Oil, which is prized for its ability to make hair silkier and shiner. The only problem is it is very expensive in the US, sometimes $30 for 6 ounces, however in Morocco it was about a sixth that price. We then toured the different markets in Tetuan, they have a separate market for each thing, including markets for produce, clothing and gold.

 

Although we were exhausted from touring two cities in one day we powered through and after a short rest we were ready for dinner. We experienced authentic couscous, although I have to say I preferred my Señora’s, and got a dinner time show of belly dancers and acrobats. After dinner we went to a private party at the hotels “discoteca” it was one room with a dance floor, and but they played decent songs and we all had fun dancing for a few hours.

 

The next morning, after a breakfast that paled in comparison to the last, we left the hotel to tour Tangier. We visited Hercules’ Grotto, where we saw the point where the Atlantic and Mediterranean meet and had the chance to wash our faces with some Herculean holy water. Then it was the part I’d been waiting for, camel time! Our tour guide kept calling the camels the Rolls Royce of Morocco, which cracked us all up. There was the cutest baby camel, but it must have missed its mom because it kept crying. I got to ride a camel, and even managed to do it with no hands. Riding them wasn’t scary at all, it was easier than riding a horse, but getting down was terrifying. I only screamed a little bit. 

 

Finally, we were wisked away to our final desination, Ceuta. Although we’d been there before we hadn’t taken a tour of the city yet. After a “five minute” bathroom break, fifty girls and they thought we could be done in five minutes, yeah right, we took a bus tour of Ceuta. We stopped at a scenic lookout for one last glimpse of the ocean before it was time to leave Africa for good. Our guide told us the legend of Hercules and that he put the rock of Gibraltar and the cliff we were on in Ceuta in the ocean as landmarks so everyone would know where the land ended. 

Then all that was left was a marathon bus ride back to Sevilla, I slept pretty much the whole way, and woke up just as we were entering the outskirts of Sevilla. It was an amazing trip, the travel company I went with did a phenomenal job and I feel so lucky to have visited a part of the world not many people get to see.